Quentin’s cameo: ‘Django Unchained’<br>

Quentin Tarantino continues to be the best and worst thing about his own movies: the filmmaker’s sense of style and creativity is undeniable, yet his more extreme tendencies have turned as many people away as they have attracted them to his cult.

One of the more unfortunate regular habits is putting himself in his own films, the worst example coming from Django Unchained, where the director appears as an Australian slaver, sporting the worst accent in the history of the antipodes. This cameo was universally panned, and he hasn’t appeared on screen in one of his movies since; at least his death was cool.

The Fiery birds: ‘Labyrinth’

Practical effects tend to age better than digital ones, and that’s one of the best things about Labyrinth, along with David Bowie’s general presence and his giant crotch. Unfortunately, there is one scene where technology lets itself down.

When Jennifer Connelly’s Sarah comes across the grotesque Fiery birds, they sing the song ‘Chilly Down’, but this whole sequence takes place against the most obvious green screen you’ve ever seen in your life. You can blame this on the limitations of the time for sure, but this was 1986, not 1946, and the song isn’t even that good either.

Trimble’s dive – ‘The Fugitive’

This scene from classic thriller The Fugitive contains one of the movie’s best moments and its overall nadir. Shortly after US Marshal Sam Gerard, played by Tommy Lee Jones, delivers his iconic “I don’t care” line, Richard Trimble, played by Harrison Ford, leaps off a massive dam to evade capture once again.

It’s supposed to be a shocking examination of how far one man will go to remain free, but this sentiment is undermined as the filmmakers made no effort to hide the fact that ‘Trimble’ is actually a dummy. You just watch it drop like a brick; such a shame.

Sonny’s terrible punches: ‘The Godfather’

The scene in The Godfather in which James Caan’s Sonny viciously beats up his sister’s abusive husband, Gianni Russo’s Carlo, is baked into the very fabric of cinema, but that unfortunately means we have to relive Caan’s awful punches over and over again.

The beatdown itself is pretty clunky, but the worst part is when one of Caan’s blows clearly misses Russo’s face by about a million miles. How nobody spotted this on the day is baffling, what with this being one of the greatest movies of all time, and that making the final cut.

The ending explanation: ‘Psycho’

Being treated like they’re stupid is obviously something people love because what else can explain the end of Alfred Hitchcock’s seminal slasher Psycho having a psychiatrist that we’ve never seen before, taking what feels like several years to explain every detail of Norman Bates’ mental state.

Granted, public understanding of psychosis and personality disorders wasn’t what it is now, but this lecture grinds the film to a halt. It’s not even like we’ve got anything interesting to look at while Dr Whoever is droning on. You’d have thought the ‘Master of Suspense’ would have found a way to liven up this dull drag.

A literal rat: ‘The Departed’

Over four decades after one acclaimed director insulted his audience, another one also acted like nobody had ever seen a movie before. Martin Scorsese’s The Departed is often cited as a career high point, but the ending is hard to swallow, and not just because it contains an animal some people don’t like.

After Sergeant Dignam, played by Mark Wahlberg, kills Colin Sullivan, played by Matt Damon, a rat can be seen crawling across the dead man’s balcony. Given that the entire movie is about discovering ‘rats’ in various organisations, this is about as subtle as the gunshot to the head that we just witnessed.

The tree scene: ‘The Evil Dead’

When the guy who makes the movie thinks he went too far, then you know something is up, as this scene from Sam Raimi’s cult classic horror The Evil Dead was divisive at the time and is just as divisive now.

Ellen Sandweiss’s Cheryl Williams is the movie’s first victim, who meets a sticky end, and Ash’s sister is brutally killed by a group of possessed trees, wherein one of the satanic shrubs even goes as far as to sexually assault her in a moment that is still just as uncomfortable to watch over 40 years later.

An awkward kiss: ‘Captain America: Civil War’

Bit of an awkward gear change, but there was no way of moving on smoothly from that last entry. In Captain America: Civil War, one of the highlights of the MCU, the titular hero gets a little steamy with a new lady, and unfortunately, that lady is Sharon Carter, the niece of his deceased former love interest, Peggy.

A scene that didn’t add anything to the story, nor was it ever brought up again, but a fig fat yes to it, making everyone squirm in their seats during an otherwise excellent film.

Girls get it done: ‘Avengers: Infinity War’

It’s a Russo double bill! Hoorah! Much is made of the awkward all-female section of Avengers: Endgame, but at least that film featured more than three characters; the same cannot be said for its predecessor.

The decision to have Scarlet Witch, Black Widow, and Okoye team up to defeat Proxima Midnight laid out back the embarrassing lack of featured females in the MCU. Both scenes were so poorly received that The Boys introduced an entire subplot mocking them, which is where the name of this entry comes from.

CGI Jabba: ‘Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope’

When George Lucas took a hatchet to his most famous creation, one of the most egregious changes he made was introducing a CGI version of Jabba the Hutt to A New Hope. This was actually a restored version of an originally deleted scene, which, alas, should have stayed on the cutting floor.

Nobody asked for this, nobody liked it when it was finished, and it has now become one of the many jokes regularly made at the special editions’ expense; George should have left well alone, but when does he ever do that?